Parachute
by Beeezie
Summary: Lily needs a little space from her family, so she does the most sensible thing she can think of: she runs away to live in Edwin Dursley's closet.


The halls of St. Mungo's were full of memories for Lily, and none of them were happy ones.

She remembered coming here when she was four or five, because her dad had been on the wrong end of a curse. She remembered coming here just before she turned eight, because her uncle Ron had inadvertently touched a cursed amulet. And when she was eleven, because Teddy had bumped into trouble in the catacombs, and thirteen, because Victoire had been attacked by... something.

When Lily had asked what, she'd just been told that it was highly classified information.

Since then, it had been nonstop. Her father, her uncles, her aunts, Victoire, Dominique, Louis, James, Rose...

Today it was James.

Again.

She could feel her eyes starting to well up.

Again.

Lily wrapped her arms around herself and tried to visualize herself being pushed and pulled by waves . It was a trick she'd come up with three years ago, after watching an old movie with her cousin Edwin that had a planet with massive waves that somehow acted like a reverse time turner. She'd remembered that a few months later when she'd been crying about a test (which seemed so _stupid_ now, really) and realized that if you just visualized your feelings as those sorts of waves and let them pull you this way and that, they didn't actually hurt as much.

James had barely been out of Hogwarts for two years, and he'd already landed himself in St. Mungo's for an extended stay twice before. He'd probably be in St. Mungo's for weeks while the Healers sorted him out.

She had no idea how many times he'd been there for what he jokingly called "quick patch-ups." No one bothered to tell her about those.

A laugh jolted her out of her barely-held calm - it was loud enough that she could even hear it from her bench down the hall from James's room. Lily winced; she didn't know what her brother Albus found so funny, and she suspected that she didn't want to know.

It had been like a punch in the stomach when her father had come home from work earlier that week and told them that James and Rose were in St. Mungo's, but what had really killed her was Albus's reaction to the news.

He'd been visiting for the afternoon, and she'd been having a really nice time talking about Quidditch and the classes she was looking forward to and his Auror training. It was the best time she'd had with Albus in a long time - once he'd left Hogwarts, they'd just grown apart.

But when their father came home with the news, Albus hadn't looked horrified. He hadn't even looked particularly anxious. And once their father had said that James and Rose would be fine, Albus had actually started to get enthusiastic about it. He'd even cracked a joke about how Scorpius was probably regretting becoming a Healer right about now.

And in that moment, Lily had felt as though the brother she'd thought she could count on to be _sensible_ had completely vanished. She'd always known that James was a very different sort of Gryffindor than she was; she hadn't realized that beneath Albus's easygoing air, he was a lot more like their older brother than he was like her.

"Hey," a voice said, and she jerked her head up. Scorpius Malfoy was standing in front of her, clad in comfortable trousers and a shirt. Some floors still wore robes; the first floor often eschewed them, but the shiny white badge on his chest made his position as a junior healer very clear. His blond hair was slightly damp where it met his scalp, and from the slight sheen of sweat across his forehead, she suspected that this was the first break he'd taken in awhile.

She forced a smile onto her face as he sat down next to her. "Hey."

"Couldn't deal with the rest of your family?"

Lily shook her head. She didn't trust herself to speak. Thankfully, with Scorpius, she didn't really have to. He'd quickly become one of Albus's best friends in their first year, and despite being two years older than her, he'd always treated her like a friend. He'd even stuck up for her when Rose told her to stop being a baby the last time James ended up in St. Mungo's, and Lily knew how much he _hated_ arguing with Rose.

The nice thing about Scorpius was that he understood why she was so unhappy and frustrated with the state of her family. He wasn't especially happy about the Weasley clan's tendency toward reckless, wild careers, either. She knew that he was still uncomfortable with Rose's joining James and Victoire at the Dangerous Creatures Bureau, and she suspected that he rather wished Albus would wake up one day and decide that he didn't want to be an Auror after all.

Lily glanced up at the doorway that led to James's room to make sure it was empty. "We get in, and he immediately starts talking about how great his job is, how _brilliant_ Rose was-" Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Scorpius twitch. "Sorry."

He shrugged. "Don't worry about it. I'm adjusting."

Rose and James had both been there for the confrontation with the trolls. Rose, however, had made it out in much better shape. She hadn't even needed to stay overnight.

"It's just..." Lily struggled to find words. "Albus was just so _excited._ He couldn't wait to hear more." She hesitated for minute. "He was _jealous,_ because he hasn't ended up in here yet. It's like he thinks it's a - a rite of passage or something."

Scorpius did not look surprised. The idea that Scorpius knew Albus that much better than she did made her feel a little uncomfortable. They'd been best friends for eight years, but even so... she was his _sister._

"I just..." she trailed off. "I didn't expect that of him," she finished after a moment. "He's so level-headed, usually."

Scorpius didn't speak for a moment. "Al... he is and he isn't," he said slowly, glancing down the hall toward the empty doorway. "I mean, in a lot of ways, he _is_ level-headed. He's a lot less rash and reckless than Rose or James." He shrugged. "But you know, in his own, slightly more subdued way, he likes adventure and excitement just as much as either of them do."

She felt the tears welling up in her eyes again. "I just don't understand when that even happened."

That was really the crux of it. She couldn't quite get a handle on when her brothers had gone from just being her big brothers to seeking out danger for a living.

Especially Albus, who was so earnest and _nice_ he probably should have been a Hufflepuff.

Scorpius sighed. "I don't think it really _happened._ I think he's always been like that. He's just more quiet about it, and especially next to Rose and James, people just didn't notice." He hesitated for a second, and then asked, "Lily, you realize that they are doing important things, right?"

That was too much. The tears began to spill out of her eyes. "Yes," she snapped. "That doesn't mean I can't be _bothered_ by the fact that I keep getting called home because _some_ family member has ended up in St. Mungo's."

Or worse.

He sighed, slid over to her and put his arm around her. That was too much. She buried her head in his shoulder and started to sob.

* * *

 _A/N: I've posted this story before (I_ think _including here, but I'm not totally sure), but I'm doing a pretty significant rewrite, so I'm reposting the whole thing. :) As always, I'd really love to hear your thoughts if you have the time to leave me a review!_

 _\- Branwen_


End file.
